For our trip to South Africa we decided to use a travel company (against our better judgement). We generally like to make our own arrangements and be on our own time schedule. But for this trip, a travel company specializing in Africa seemed to make sense. Exoticca promised curated adventures for independent travelers. We wanted to see the entire country and with lots of logistics and some security concerns we decided to let them do the planning. The itinerary looked good and there appeared to be plenty of time on our own which is important because we hate regimented tours.
Sign up was easy and the company sent lots of updates. So far so good. There were a few bumps in the road, including a request to add two additional days at their expense. When we signed up, we took the option to fly either Ethiopian air or Quatar air. We weren’t really anticipating a war in the Middle East and we thought it was a good opportunity to see another part of the world.
Six months later, we are left with Ethiopian Air as our only real option as Middle Eastern airports were added to the State Department list of high risk destinations with minimal or no U.S. embassy support. (I will add that to the list of ways the current administration is determined to derail my life, but whatever.) We are happy to fly through Ethiopia. A layover in Addis Ababa is the most direct route outside of a direct flight from the United States to Johannesburg.
About a week before our flight, I went online to check the preflight paperwork requirements. That is when I noticed that our flights had been changed to one full day earlier. I looked at the prior communication to verify that I wasn’t hallucinating. I asked my husband to verify his paperwork. Definitely one day early. I checked the exotica app. Our hotels no longer aligned. There was a date where my hotel was listed as remaining in Johannesburg but we were to be on Safari over 500 miles away. Something is very wrong. Clearly some things have changed.
So ….I call Exoticca, but they won’t answer. I try to call the public number and leave a message. I wait on hold. It seemed easy to reach a human when I was booking the trip. I use the app. Each time I have provide my account number, my birthdate, and my email. I start to wonder where into the cloud my personal information was flowing. Once I start the chat, why am I endlessly reverifying?
The only live person I manage to talk to after a four hour period of waiting tells me that I probably just don’t know how to read an airline itinerary and that I perhaps looked at the date of arrival instead of the date of departure. I may have mentioned to said customer service agent that I fly frequently and that I was in possession of a number of prior confirmation emails all showing our departure as full a day later. The agent simply confirms the new date and asks if he could help with anything else. Though I am furious, I bite my tongue, because he can not help with switching the preflight hotel, parking, and travel insurance. It all has to be adjusted and I have limited time to get it done. Hopefully it won’t cost us.
I am so upset that a company could change a flight to a full day earlier, not tell me, and then pretend I am the problem, that I forget to get a solution for the hotel mix up. If I call back, I won’t be nice. Being surly won’t help anything, so I go back to the app help chat. I re-enter on multiple screens to verify my identity. I re-explain the issue. I read again that it is not an issue because we have a room. I ask the chat agent (that I assume is AI) to explain how I can be on a full day Safari and then spend the night in a city that I already left a day before and that is also 500 miles away from my Safari. Then I wait. And I wait. I think I broke the chat bot. Finally I get a response that says, “this appears to be a serious discrepancy and will be escalated.” No solution, but at least I finally got someone/something to agree it is a problem.
The day we are to travel to Chicago, we still don’t know if our lodging issues are solved. But we also know that we need to be on a flight tomorrow and not the next day so that is progress I guess. As we are leaving the house, I get a flight change text from the airline. Our return flight will now be routed through Dulles. No big deal, I think. I am naive like that. A regular Pollyanna. At least until I get an email to call Exoticca.
They left a message on my husband’s phone to call asap. I while he drives through St. Louis traffic. They ask if we can stay in Cape Town two extra days. They can’t give me a reason why it is necessary. I explain that I have rearranged my schedule and travel documents twice already to accommodate changes they can’t explain: the first time at their request to add two extra days in Johannesburg and tje second time to fly a full day early. All without explanation of the necessity of the change. I explain that I can’t stay over due to work obligations and to request that the provide us with other options home and costs is any.
Halfway to Chicago, we are told via phone call that they are flying us through Doha. We explain that the U.S. has asked American travelers to avoid the airport. They tell me they can cancel my return flight and I can find my own way home. I reply that it is unacceptable. I remind them that the airline has already rerouted me through Dulles and ask them again just to accept the suggested flight change. No other action is required. I would like to keep that flight. They do not know that it is an option. I ask why. I am told that the agent will have to talk to the flight team and call me back. No one calls me back.
Somewhere outside Joliet, I call and get yet another service agent. I explain for the fourth time that I just want to accept the airline change. They will have to talk to the flight crew and call me back. No one calls me back.
We arrive at our hotel in Chicago. We are using park and fly. They ask when we will pick up our car upon return. We honestly don’t know, so we pay for three additional days just in case. I hope that will be enough. At this point who knows?
After settling into our room, I go online and see lots of return flight options including a direct United flight to Dulles. United is a code share partner with Ethiopian airlines. This should be an easy task. I think I could have this sorted in minutes, but I am stuck in travel agent hell and cannot deal with the airline directly. I can’t even deal with the “flight team directly”. I have seemingly endless supply of new service agents who are happy to check and call me back ( that is code for speak soothing words and promptly forget you exist).
I find I can’t enjoy my dinner despite our selection of a lovely Italian family owned restaurant. I lose my appetite when we receive an email telling us that nothing can be done to confirm our return flight until we arrive in South Africa. Now I am angry. This is silly. I have talked to five different agents and sent at least three confirmation emails all saying the same thing. I would like them just to accept the airlines change to fly me home through Dulles. All I have heard is this may not be possible.
I step out of the restaurant and call the emergency “in trip” number. I get the finally reach a person who acts like they care. I, of course, have to start from the beginning. All I know for certain is that we have flights to Johannesburg and a hotel there. Everything else seems a bit up in the air. I ask if they expect us to fly halfway around the world without knowing where we will be staying, how we are getting there or how we are getting home. While “Brendan” is attentive, he has no solutions. The air team has to confirm flights, he says. The Africa team on the ground will confirm everything else via Whatsapp. Do I have it downloaded? Well yes, “Brendan”, I do have a Whatsapp account. I’m not sure that is the best business model given what I paid you for service, but who am I to judge.
The morning of departure, we head to the airport early. (My husband and I disagree on optimal timing. I like to arrive early and have leisurely coffee. He likes to stroll up somewhere between all aboard and final call.) Today we find a lovely restaurant near our gate and have waffles. He has heard me talking to the travel agents and doesn’t want to chance it. My day is looking better already. I have mapped our own way home if need be. Who needs travel agents? Life is always better with a back up plan. Sure it might cost us what the round trip flight has already cost us, but it can be done.
I noticed that we need do an online customs declaration for South Africa at the start of this debacle , but that it can only be done 24 to 48 hours before arrival. In the rush yesterday, I forgot. The link to the site on the airline app doesn’t work. The first link in a Google search turns out to be a company trying to charge me for the free service. Third times a charm, I find the link. After endless scrolling, flipping through sixty years worth of dates and Google searches of how to write South African addresses (the form won’t take the address provided by Exoticca and it was of course a required field), I finally manage to get my clearance confirmed via email. Unfortunately, we have to start over to enter a declaration for my husband. It goes a little quicker the second time, but not by much. I realize I sound like the cranky old person in the corner, but remember when the flight attendant would just hand you a simple paper form to complete when you were comfortably seated on the plane? Remember when you just handed it to a person who greeted you and welcomed you to the country and maybe asked a few question? I am not sure who thought 22 tech fields done on a cell phone was easier. I do not. No one asked me.
We are delighted with Ethiopian airlines. The check in process is easy and the gate agents are extremely efficient. Our agent explains that due to the restrictions put in place by the current administration, flights to and from Ethiopia are in less demand. The daily flight to Chicago has been cut to four days a week. Suddenly, the many flight changes make sense. Not once did Exoticca share this tidbit….even when I asked for an explanation. I suspect that the random agents at the call center didn’t even know. Sigh. I get more information from the ticketing agent than I got from endless phone calls and I didn’t even have to ask. It was offered as an apology.
Despite the crazy, I love the excitement of boarding an international flight. The plane is colorful with bright yellow and green seats and pillows. The attendants are dressed sharply in business suits with large colorful bows. Other flight staff are wearing flowing white robes with sashes adorned with sunflowers. A beautiful woman in white, hands me an amenity kit with socks, eye mask and tooth brush. Apparently, I am a valued customer….even in coach. I already feel embraced by Africa.
I look around the aircraft. It is half empty. There is no one seated next to me and my husband has managed to score an entire row to himself. We appear to be the only Midwestern retirees on the flight. Looks can be deceiving. I don’t know the stories of those headed with us to Ethiopia. But I can hear an abundance of African and Middle eastern languages. The safety video and announcements are not in English. I struggle to understand the hurried follow up translation offered by the flight chief. It is good to be challenged with my own limitations and comfort every now and again.
The flight, while long, passes quickly. I read. I watch movies. I listen to music. I write. But most of all we eat. It seems like every few hours someone is offering me food. It is not food that I am familiar with, nor do I particularly like some of what is offered….but there is a lot of it. Curry, rice, chicken, lamb, fish, beef meatballs, pickled vegetables, cold boiled potatoes, bread, chocolate. There is wine, juice, beer, soft drinks, hot tea and coffee offered again and again.
Before I am completely exhausted (my travel adrenaline is high) and after about fourteen hours, we land in Addis Ababa. We have one hour and fifteen minutes to make our connecting flight to Johannesburg. I am feeling hopeful as we are sitting near the front of the plane that we can make the quick transition. We grab our backpacks and hustle down the stairs to the tarmac where we have to board a bus. The bus delivers us to the door to the airport. It is slightly chaotic. Employees direct us up an escalator. A man in a uniform says “They are waiting for you.” Who?… who is waiting for me. It is all very mysterious.
We toured Johannesburg the next day. And the next. About mid morning on Monday, I get a WhatsApp telling me our departure is schedule for Wednesday. The entire message said “Wednesday pick up. His name is Donald.” Well that clears that up. We will sit in the lobby on Wednesday and look for “Donald”.
We pass a long line at border security to exit into Ethiopia. We don’t want that line. I begin to shout Johannesburg to anyone who looks official. There is an army of attendants with clip boards sorting passengers to various gates and check points. They point us to a priority security line. Apparently, “they” really are waiting for us. We would not have found this priority lane without the information brigade. I am suddenly grateful for the shouting and pointing.
What a relief! The normal security line is a zoo. We don’t have to use it. I start to unload my backpack and am asked to move lines to another behind a family with eight children. The mother is having to assist each child individually while stopping to chase escaping toddlers. Dad has already walked through without a backward glance. I am tired and beyond frustrated. The line I was in is moving and we would have been through by now. I am hopping on one foot trying to remove my shoes while juggling a bin larger than I am in order to extract my laptop because children loitered in front of every bit of counter space. I take off my jacket while trying to not crush a toddler when the security officer aggressively waves me around the family. I have only my backpack and the giant bin of security check detritus to move with me. I try to step around, but I swear there are a million little bodies forming a fence. My husband is yelling that I am butting in line. The security agent is yelling for me to come forward around the family roadblock. I plunge ahead dragging my husband with me. I am going to need a blood pressure check.
Across the security hurdle, we look for our gate. It is in the furthest point of the furthest terminal. Because…of course it is. When the brigade of information agents asks for our destination and I say Johannesburg, she tells us to, “hurry”. Now I begin to speed walk. I don’t want to overnight in Ethiopia…. I don’t have another Exoticca dilemma in me. I do not want to sort another flight. It would be too much and I haven’t even been successful in sorting the other messes.
I am moving quickly, but I seem to have left my husband behind. I wait and I cajole to move faster. He mutters that he shouldn’t have to run. I mutter that if we miss this plane I will kill him. He begins to breathe heavily . I realize if I push him much more, I may actually kill him.
New strategy…I will push ahead to try and see the gate and him simultaneously. If I see….oh, Lord they are boarding. We need to catch that bus.
We arrive with much muttering, a few pointed looks and more than a few sighs….or maybe gasps for breath? Now we wait in the moving line to board a bus to take us to the plane parked right next to the one we just departed about an hour ago….. because….of course it is.
Oh well, I settle into the six hour flight to Johannesburg. I am on the plane. I might sleep. But first they want to feed me. I am offered a “breakfast” sandwich and coffee. Sounds pleasant enough until I open up a chicken salad sandwich. Nope. That is not happening. I still have packaged bread left over from the prior flight. I’ll have that…it is not like I could possibly be hungry. Besides I am still on the high I get when my last connecting flight is in the air. We are headed to Johannesburg! This flight is secure and there are hours before I need to speak to anyone from Exoticca.
At the Joburg airport, our luggage comes immediately. We walk through immigration and customs without a glitch. There is some weird kind of self satisfaction that hits when I hear the clickclunk of a passport stamp and walk through the gate freely into a country. I am in Africa and this time, I am staying for awhile. No mad dash through the airport. Just a leisurely stroll to baggage claim, where miraculously our suitcases have already appeared.
We fumble around to find our welcome letter. The only information we have. It gives general directions to a bus depot and says something about a welcome reception. The language is laughable. “If you are staying in a charm hotel then do this, unless it is this or this day then this”… blah blah blah. I don’t really know what category we booked almost a year ago. I haven’t seen that language since we booked. But I do know the name of the hotel. If all else fails, we Uber. We walk to the bus depot anyway where find the hotel shuttle waiting.
The O.R. Tambo Garden Court hotel is lovely. There is a beautiful garden space and lovely pool. There is even an Irish Pub onsite. Someone made this place just for me. Things are looking up. I can feel it. Our room is ready despite the early arrival. Yay! It is small but comfortable. I decide to unpack and then try to resolve the issues with Exoticca.
Sitting by the pool, I call Exoticca. Nothing is resolved. They say without laughing , “we don’t know what you would like to do”. I say “well in case my prior six calls and five emails weren’t clear, I want you to simply confirm and approve the change the airline has already sent me long before you ever got involved” They say “that flight ends in Dulles. You flew from Chicago.” I say, “they code share with United. There are several connecting flights back from Dulles, any one of them will do.” They say, “not possible. Do you want us to cancel the flight and you can make your own arrangements?” I say, “ do not cancel that flight. Confirm it. If I have to, and to be clear, I shouldn’t have to. I will make my own arrangements to fly from Dulles to Chicago.” I asked for flight confirmation either ending in Dulles or with a connecting United flight and remind them that United code shares with Ethiopian in the Star Alliance. The connecting flight should be covered. Frustrated, I followed up the call with yet another email.
Feeling stressed, I decided why not go the whole hog and contact Amazing Africa, the local team, to find out a) how I am getting to Kruger b) what day and time we are being picked up from this hotel, and c) who is actually picking us up. These seem like basic questions we should know. And yet….. we get a reply via Whatsapp that they don’t work on weekends and will reply on Monday during working hours. I hope we aren’t supposed to leave on Sunday or Monday. We would never know and likely miss the pick up. They will then probably tell me I don’t know how to read the welcome letter.
Because I am a glutton for punishment, I call Exoticca before bed. No confirmation. I ask to be informed of pickup and whether our lodging at Kruger National park has been resolved. I am told to revert to my original itinerary. I am being a jerk when I ask which is considered original…The one we purchased. The one that was amended with extra days in joburg. The one issued pre- Kruger hotel mix up. The one pre- addition of extra day of flight. I have six different versions, which one would they suggest I use? If I knew, I wouldn’t bring it up. They couldn’t say….it is handled by the ground team….have I tried contacting Amazing Africa via WhatsApp?
This post has gotten away from me. While I am being faithful to the narrative it is a bit repetitive from here on out. Let me try to speed up the relevant bits. We sleep (he sleeps, I try to). I get an email from Exoticca that they need to hear from me. Did I realize the flight I requested ended at Dulles and not Chicago? I send more emails and spend about four more hours on the phone explaining that I want to keep the flight to Dulles. That was reissued by the airline days ago and is also showing on the airline app with our names on it!
Feeling lucky, I call Exoticca and demand confirmation of my flight. I have resigned myself to buying new connecting flights to Chicago. I tell them I will wait while they confirm with the “flight team.” I am told we are all set with no mention of the code share connecting flight. Afterwards, I log on and purchase United flights from Dulles to Chicago. Yes, I am a little salty at spending an additional $600 on flights that should be code share and covered. But the ordeal is done. We head to the Irish pub to celebrate. In my opinion, a singular Guiness is the best way to forget this nonsense.
We have lovely African buffet dinner. I talk to African children in town for a school trip. We sit in the garden and watch a rainstorm approach. Life is good. Finally, it is time for bed. As my head hits the pillow, I get an email from Exoticca. Do I know my flight is going to Dulles? They need me to call them asap to discuss…. Are you kidding me? I determine to ignore it, but they have also left a voice message… they would like offer a flight through Doha…. You can’t make this up.
I spring out of bed. By dumb luck I am connected with “Brendan” perhaps the only agent with a soul. He remembers me. He is shocked that the issue still isn’t resolved. I patiently tell him it is resolved. I make him listen to the whole saga….much as I am making you. I explain that I haven’t slept much in five days because I am in Africa and I entrusted my well being to his company and they can’t manage to answer simple questions or finalize simple requests like…accepting the airlines flight change…which…I….asked ….for …in ….the….very….first….call….after the flight change. I share that I already spent two hours on the phone today and was assured the flight had been accepted. Imagine my surprise when I was awakened by an urgent phone call/email telling me my flight was not confirmed until I called yet again. Eight phone calls and six emails asking for the same exact thing are clearly not enough. What exactly do I need to do “Brendan” to make sure this is the last Exoticca phone call I ever have to make?
To his credit, “Brendan” took my frustration like champ. He was helpful and ensured that the matter was closed. I was finally able to confirm seats before we ended the call. He said he would discuss with his manager additional compensation (which did not happen), but more importantly he listened and he asked questions.
Five full days after the original flight change email, I took a deep breath. I am in Africa. I have flights back to the U.S.. I can enjoy Joburg tomorrow without worrying about missing my transport to Kruger. I have places to sleep while we are here….. We only have to find Donald at some ill defined time between 7 and 9 am on Wednesday…. That seems very doable all things considered. Maybe tonight there will be no more surprises and I can finally get some sleep.